World

UK woman on death row in Bali to be repatriated

By AAP Newswire

Oct 21, 2025

A file photo of Lindsay Sandiford — Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced in 2013 for smuggling cocaine into Bali from Bangkok. -AP

Indonesia has agreed to repatriate a 69-year-old British woman who was on death row for trying to smuggle drugs into Bali.

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Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to jail in 2013 for smuggling cocaine worth more than $US2 million ($A3.1 million) into the holiday island in Indonesia, which has some of the world's strictest drug trafficking laws.

Sandiford, 69, was found guilty of smuggling 4.8 kilograms of the drug hidden in the lining of her suitcase on a flight from Bangkok.

Yusril Ihza Mahendra, a senior Indonesian minister on legal affairs, said the two nations had agreed to release Sandiford on humanitarian grounds.

"Lindsay is old and sick. In prison she had good behaviour so that was enough reason to satisfy the request from the United Kingdom government that she be returned home and complete her sentence there," he told Reuters.

Yusril said another British national, who had been sentenced for life, was being released with her.

Sandiford would possibly return home in the next two weeks, Yusril said. Britain's foreign office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.